Chart of the Day: In Latin American Cities, Unemployment Drops

And the informal economy is shrinking

Between 2000 and 2009, urban unemployment in Latin America fell from 8.1 percent to 7.3 percent, the biggest ten year drop in three decades. This according to an expansive new United Nations report which you can download here.

The number of workers in the informal economy also fell by about 6 percent (to 42.7 percent) between 2000 and 2009. However, the income divide between those in the formal and informal economies has grown. That's illustrated in the chart below.